Introduction Gay Russia is a vast subject with a short modern history. Life is not easy for LGBT Russians and most prefer to remain in quiet safe closets. But three LGBT organizations are challenging the old traditions and attitudes. It is not easy or always safe but the challenge is great and their determination is
As of 2011, Russia had no criminal law directed at LGBT people. However that changed in 2013 when the Russian duma passed –and Putin signed–a deliberate discriminatory law against any public advocacy of gay rights or equality. Since that legalization of homophobia LGBT advocates have faced increased hostility and violence–and death. There is a LGBT community network but it operates mostly indoors and online, out of public scrutiny, although a peaceful small Pride rally was held in July 2014 in a field some distance from central St. Petersburg. As one activist said, “the courageous became more courageous, the closeted became more closeted. However the latter are much more than the first.” The future for Russian LGBT progress is dim.
Name: Russia
Population: 142008000
Capital: Moscow - Pop. 10482000
Area: 17075400 sq. km/ sq. miles
Language: Russian
Religion: Russian Orthodox
Status of Homosexuality: Legal
Telephone Country Code: 7
Random Images of St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city’s other names were Petrograd and Leningrad 1924
Random Images of Moscow
Moscow is the capital of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world. Moscow is the most populous city on the continent of Europe and the seventh largest city proper in the world. The population as of January 2010 was 10,562,099. Since the
Hermitage State Museum in St Petersburg
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise nearly 3
Moscow Subways and the Bombing of March 2010
Moscow has some of the most elegant Metro subway stations of any country, ranging from modernistic art deco interior designs to more ornate baroque-looking walls to huge stained-glass walls. This gallery displays a few of the many styles. During the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010 two suicide bombings were carried out, about 40
Gay Russia Images: Moscow and St Petersburg
Gay Russia is a vast subject with a short modern history. Life is not easy for LGBT Russians and most prefer to remain in quiet safe closets. But three LGBT organizations (see story) are challenging the old traditions and attitudes. It is not easy or always safe but the challenge is great and their determination
Three Famous Burial Grounds
The three famous cemeteries portrayed here contain the remains of Russia’s most notable artists, politicians, military leaders, elite class members and the Czars–including the reburial of the last Czar, Nicholas and his family who were assasinated in 1918 and finally reburied in St Petersburg in 1991. More inspiring are the sites of the great artists
Leo Tolstoy’s Estate Yasnaya Polyana
Yasnaya Polyana was the home of the writer Leo Tolstoy, where he was born, wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and is buried. Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold,". It is located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia and 200 kilometers (130 miles) from Moscow. In 1921 the estate formally became